The 100 Most Powerful Women

#5 Ho Ching

08.19.09, 06:00 PM EDT

When Temasek, Singapore's flagship sovereign wealth fund, announced in February that Ho Ching was stepping down as chief executive after five years at the helm, observers assumed the global financial crisis had claimed another high-profile victim.

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When Temasek, Singapore's flagship sovereign wealth fund, announced in February that Ho Ching was stepping down as chief executive after five years at the helm, observers assumed the global financial crisis had claimed another high-profile victim. In substituting retired BHP Billion Chief Chip Goodyear, Temasek was swapping out the executive who had presided over investments in hard-hit banks like Merrill Lynch (now part of Bank of America), Standard Chartered and Singapore's DBS Group. But in July, just three months before he was slated to take over, Goodyear and Temasek abruptly parted ways, citing differences on "strategic issues." Singapore's first lady is keeping her day job in the corner office while she looks for another successor. Next challenge: maintaining Temasek's vaunted 18% compounded annual return since the fund's 1974 inception. —Chana R. Schoenberger

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